“In each one of the circumstances where I’ve worked with these incredible filmmakers that happen to be women, they were the best people for the job,” he said, adding that he doesn’t “get it” when other directors don’t hire many women for jobs behind the camera.

“I work with incredible filmmakers that happen to be women, they were the best people for the job. If you aren’t opening up to find people who are truly the best, then that can limit you.” - King Ryan Coogler on excellence and inclusion in BLACK PANTHER. https://t.co/LHXpqUvfVI

“We cut past any of the normal bureaucracy of male dominance, where they may want to overtake the conversation or need to be leader of the idea,” she told the Times. “You don’t have to be overbearing to get your point to him — he’s open in that way. With that calmness and humility, the gate opens: ‘Hello, I have this to offer.’”

Arthur Mola/Invision/AP"Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018.

Director Ava DuVernay, whose independent film collective Array amplifies films by women and people of color, tweeted last January about what it was like to work on the same lot as Coogler.

“We edited our films across the hall from each other for 8 months,” she wrote before watching the premiere “Black Panther.” “We talked in our edit bays, on walks around the lot. About our films, our dreams. Tonight, his comes true. On my way to the #BlackPanther premiere with a full heart for my fam, director extraordinaire #RyanCoogler!”

Regina King, for example, said during her Golden Globes acceptance speech on Sunday that she had vowed to help boost women’s representation in the film industry by hiring women for at least 50 percent of the jobs on her future projects.